Inheritance tax for children when one parent dies and the other survives in Belgium

When your father or mother dies and the other parent is still alive, two questions come first: what do the children inherit, and how much inheritance tax do they pay on it? The answer depends on the relationship between your parents and on the region where the parent who died last lived.

A separate scheme called the "surviving child's share" does not exist in Belgian law. There is no priority for the eldest child, no special status for the child who lives in the family home and no deferral of inheritance tax over ten or fifteen years at a low interest rate. Below is what does exist.

Who inherits what when one parent dies?

Civil inheritance law is federal, so it is the same across Belgium. What the surviving parent inherits depends on how your parents lived together: married, as legal cohabitants or as de facto cohabitants. For married parents, the matrimonial property regime also affects what the survivor inherits.

Married parents

Unless a will or marriage contract says otherwise, the surviving spouse inherits the usufruct of the whole estate. The children inherit the bare ownership. According to notaris.be, this means your mother or father may keep living in the home, rent it out and collect the rent, and receives the interest on the accounts. As a child you are already the owner, but you can only use the assets once the surviving parent dies. At that point your bare ownership automatically becomes full ownership.

The surviving spouse also has a reserved share, a minimum that a will cannot take away: either the usufruct of the family home and its contents, or the usufruct of half the estate, at the survivor's choice. A will can also give the spouse more, as long as the share reserved for the children is respected.

Parents who were legal cohabitants

If your parents had made a declaration of legal cohabitation at the town hall, the survivor inherits the usufruct of the family home and its contents. The children inherit the bare ownership of those, and all other assets (savings, investments, a second home) in full ownership. A legal cohabitant has no reserved share: a will can limit or extend this inheritance right.

Parents who were de facto cohabitants

If your parents simply lived together without a declaration, the survivor inherits nothing unless there is a will in his or her favour. Without a will, the children inherit the whole estate in full ownership. If your parents owned the house together, only the share of the parent who died is part of the estate.

The children's reserved share

Children are always entitled together to at least half of the estate, however many children there are. With one child that is half, with two children a quarter each, with three children a sixth each. This is set out on the notaris.be page on reserved heirs.

Which region sets the inheritance tax?

Not where the house is, and not where you live. What counts is the last fiscal residence of the parent who died: the region where he or she lived longest during the five years before death. The tax is calculated per heir on the net share, after debts and funeral costs have been deducted.

What does the surviving parent pay?

Each region has an exemption on the family home for the surviving parent, but the conditions differ.

• Flanders: no inheritance tax on the net share in the family home, meaning the main residence where the partners lived together at the time of death. This applies to spouses, legal cohabitants and de facto cohabitants who lived together for at least 3 years. For deaths from 1 January 2026, the first €75,000 of the partner's movable assets is also exempt.
• Brussels: the spouse or legal cohabitant pays no inheritance tax on his or her net share in the home that was the family home at the time of death.
• Wallonia: the spouse or legal cohabitant gets a full exemption on the net share in a home in Wallonia that had been the main residence of the deceased for at least five years.

What do the children pay?

When the children receive bare ownership and the surviving parent usufruct, each of those rights is given a value in the estate declaration. The notary does that conversion. The rates below apply to the value that falls to you as a child. When the children inherit in full ownership, as with de facto cohabiting parents, the calculation is simpler.

Flanders

• 3% up to €50,000, 9% from €50,000 to €250,000 and 27% above that. The movable and immovable parts are each taxed on their own scale.
• Tax credit: if your net share is no more than €50,000, the tax is reduced by €500 minus one hundredth of your share.
• Children under 21 get a reduction of €75 for each full year until they turn 21. The surviving parent gets half of the reduction the common children receive together.

The Flemish government has announced a reform of inheritance tax, but according to vlaanderen.be nothing has been decided yet. The current rates still apply.

Brussels

Net share	Rate
up to €50,000	3%
€50,000 to €100,000	8%
€100,000 to €175,000	9%
€175,000 to €250,000	18%
€250,000 to €500,000	24%
above €500,000	30%

The first €15,000 is exempt, plus €2,500 for each full year until 21 for a child of the deceased. For a share in full ownership of the home where the deceased had lived as main residence for at least five years, a reduced rate exists up to €250,000. Your notary checks whether it applies to your situation.

Wallonia

Net share	Rate
up to €12,500	3%
€12,500 to €25,000	4%
€25,000 to €50,000	5%
€50,000 to €100,000	7%
€100,000 to €150,000	10%
€150,000 to €200,000	14%
€200,000 to €250,000	18%
€250,000 to €500,000	24%
above €500,000	30%

The first €12,500 is exempt, plus another €12,500 if the net share is no more than €125,000. Children under 21 get an extra €2,500 for each full year until they turn 21. In Wallonia too, a reduced rate applies under conditions to the children's share in the family home. In Brussels and Wallonia, the surviving spouse or legal cohabitant receives half of the extra allowances of the common children.

A fuller explanation with more examples is in how much inheritance tax a child pays in Belgium.

Two worked examples for a death in 2026

In both examples the parents were de facto cohabitants and there is no will. The children therefore inherit everything in full ownership and the surviving parent inherits nothing. The estate contains no family home, so the exemptions and reduced rates for the home do not come into play.

Example 1: two adult children

Mother leaves a net €300,000: a rented-out flat worth €200,000 and €100,000 in savings. Each child inherits €150,000, of which €100,000 is immovable and €50,000 movable.

Region	Calculation per child	Per child
Flanders	Immovable: €50,000 x 3% = €1,500 and €50,000 x 9% = €4,500. Movable: €50,000 x 3% = €1,500.	€7,500
Brussels	€15,000 exempt. €35,000 x 3% = €1,050, €50,000 x 8% = €4,000, €50,000 x 9% = €4,500.	€9,550
Wallonia	€12,500 exempt (share above €125,000). €12,500 x 4% = €500, €25,000 x 5% = €1,250, €50,000 x 7% = €3,500, €50,000 x 10% = €5,000.	€10,250

Example 2: one child aged 12

Father leaves a net €60,000 in savings to his only child, who is 12 years and 4 months old. There are 8 full years left until 21.

Region	Calculation	To pay
Flanders	€50,000 x 3% = €1,500 and €10,000 x 9% = €900, together €2,400. No tax credit (share above €50,000). Reduction 8 x €75 = €600.	€1,800
Brussels	Exempt: €15,000 + 8 x €2,500 = €35,000. €15,000 x 3% = €450 and €10,000 x 8% = €800.	€1,250
Wallonia	Exempt: €25,000 (share not above €125,000) + 8 x €2,500 = €45,000. €5,000 x 5% = €250 and €10,000 x 7% = €700.	€950

Keeping, selling or buying out the house

Converting the usufruct. Both the surviving spouse and the children can ask for the usufruct to be converted. The children then become full owners and the survivor receives a sum of money or an annuity. For the family home and its contents this is never possible without the surviving spouse's consent. The value of the usufruct depends on life expectancy; if the parties cannot agree, the court decides using conversion tables. If, in Flanders, the surviving spouse instead buys the bare ownership from the children to become full owner, Flemish partition duty is due.

Buying out a brother or sister. If children inherit a home together in full ownership and one takes over the others' shares, partition duty is due. It depends on where the property is: 2.5% in Flanders, 1% in Brussels and Wallonia. If only one owner is left afterwards, it is calculated on the value of the whole property. If in example 1 one child takes over the whole €200,000 flat, that is €5,000 if it is in Flanders and €2,000 if it is in Brussels or Wallonia.

Selling. A bare owner can sell the bare ownership, but the survivor's usufruct then stays attached to the property. To sell the home as a whole, the surviving parent and the children therefore have to work together. See also whether the mother can sell the house after the father's death and whether all heirs have to sign the sale.

Both inheritance tax and partition duty are calculated on the value of the home, and in Flanders the value used for partition duty may not be lower than the market value. Knowing a realistic price therefore helps with every choice. You can request a free valuation of the home.

What can you do now?

Find out whether your parents were married, legal cohabitants or de facto cohabitants, whether there is a will or marriage contract, and in which region the parent who died last lived. That tells you who inherits what and which rates apply. The notary calculates the exact tax, including the value of the usufruct and bare ownership, when filing the estate declaration.